In Brief
Vaibhavi Enterprise and Tanish Cerachem challenged a High Court order that granted a writ of mandamus in favour of Nobel Cera Coat for ONGC gas allocation, permitting Nobel Cera to reduce its gas lift timeline from 75 to 65 days. The Supreme Court held that the High Court's procedure was fundamentally flawed because it allowed one bidder to modify its offer without impleading the competing bidders or giving them an equal opportunity to revise their bids. The Court emphasised that when a court exercises discretionary powers affecting competing bidders, principles of natural justice mandate full notice and hearing to all interested parties. The impugned order was quashed, the matter remitted to the High Court for fresh adjudication with all parties properly impleaded, and both appeals were allowed.
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